Air cushioned deckle



Jan. 29, 1963 J. WINTERBURN 3,075,579

AIR CUSHIONED DECKLE Filed May 4, 1961 7o ll lI 26 l 0 p 60 62 42 Q 72INVENTOR JOSEPH wlNT E R BURN yM fi/ Q,

ATTORNEY o lid This invention provides a new and improved deckle deviceutilizing a jet of air employing battles and obviating the usual bowwave in the paper stock created by the drag on the sheet caused by priorart conventional deckle edge rulers and which does not touch or createany wear or drag on the Pourdr-inier wire because of the fact that it isactually a blast of air in sheet form, the ballles causing the jet toprogress downstream relative to the direction of travel of theFourdrinier wire, providing an improved square edge instead of the usualrough and sloping edge occasioned by the use of prior art deckle edgerulers.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation illustrating the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view in elevation, looking in the direction ofarrow 2 in FIG. 1;

PKG. 3 is an enlarged view in end elevation of one of the new aircushion deckles, parts being in section;

PEG. 4 is a fragmentary section of the deckle, looking in the directionof arrowdin MG. 3 and illustrating the bafile construction; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view on line 55 of FIG. 3 illustrating the airflow adjustments.

Referring now to FIG. 1 there is here generally shown a Fourdrinier wirelib which is mounted to pass rapidly over a series of table rolls l2,mold boards, suction boxes and the like in the direction of the arrow.The head box is shown generally at 14, the breast roll at 16 and thecouch roll at 18. The paper stock in fluid form issues through the sliceopening from the head box as is well known and as the Fourdrinier wirecarries it along, the stock being iluid, tends to flow laterallyoutwardly to the edges of the Fourdrinier wire in a sort of slopingturbulent form, even with the use of conventional deckle edge rulers.This of course causes waste due to faulty edges in the finished paperwhich have to be trimmed.

in the present case, a means is provided to prevent this outward how andturbulence of the paper stock by the provision of continuous elongatedjets of air which impinge on the Fourdrinier wire it in position tomatch the width of the opening of the head box slice, see PEG. 2. Thesejets are provided by the devices comprising the inventio-n in thepresent case, and these in turn comprise in general air chambers or thelike generally indicated at 2% there being one mounted at each side ofthe machine. These air chambers 2% can be made in any length desired orin multiples of relatively short types and are preferably mounted bymeans of brackets 22 vertically adjustable on uprights 24 which may bemounted as desired, i.e., on the floor or more usually on the table rollrails.

Each chamber as is provided with an inlet connection 2 6 to which isconnected a hose 28 in turn deriving air under pressure from a blower orcompressor 30 having a divided connection at 32 and supported in any waydesired as by an overhead scatfold 34 as shown in FIG. 1. A quickrelease connection 36 may be provided as a part of the fixture 2e andthe same may be provided with an air volume control damper 33, see FIG.1.

Each of the chambers is made in general in cylindrical form and each hasa narrow depending nozzle 44} which 3,h75,57 Patented Jan. 29, 1963.

is elongated and extends the length of each section of chamber 20, sothat a continuous jet in the form of a sheet or veil impinges upon theFourdrinier wire 10 and prevents the outward flow of the paper stock S,see FIGS. 2 and 3, thus providing the paper with a uniform edge andpreventing any kind of drag, bow wave, etc., and the consequent wastage.

Chamber Zil and its nozzle ll form essentially two communicatingchambers of which chamber has a much greater volume so that a relativelyhigh velocity jet issues from the nozzle and this jet is uniform fromend-to-end.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, the air cushion deckle chamber is shownin detail wherein as an example of the construction, a kind ofcylindrical member 42 is provided, this having a series of apertures 44lying along a certain portion thereof. A plate 46 is provided with abent portion 38. The bent portion 43 is adapted to be secured against aside on the bottom part of the cylindrical member 42 and it is providedwith a series of screw studs 56, secured to plate 4-6, which by means ofnuts 52 connect plate 46 to angle brackets 54 fixed to member 42.

Each bracket 54 has a depending member which receives a stud, the nutsbeing mounted on the studs. The bracket itself is connected at 56 to alink 58 in turn connected to a slidable bracket 60 which may be movedalong its supporting rod 62. Supporting rods 62 are mounted for verticaladjustment on brackets 22 on uprights 24, FIG. 1.

There is another plate which is referred to as the top lip plate, plate46 being the bottom lip plate. The top lip plate is secured along aportion of member 42. indicated at 64, the top lip plate being indicatedat 66. it will be seen that by adjusting the nuts 52, plate 46 can bemoved by being flexed in-and-out with reference to rigid plate 66, thusvarying the aperture indicated at 68 whence issues the stream of airwhich acts as the deckle for the stock on the Fourdrinler wire asexplained above.

The chamber 2t) may be conveniently mounted on some kind of end pivots70 so that when the bracket 69 is moved in-and-out (see REG. 3), theentire chamber including the nozzle ll) formed by the plates 4.5, 66 canbe adjusted at an angle other than normal to the Fourdrinier wire. Theair pressure of the jet is controlled by the width of the opening. Theplates as and 66 are of course provided with end closure plates as at72.

Mounted upon the rigid lip plate 66 there are a series of triangularbatlles or vanes shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 at 74. These battles areangularly located with respect to the Fourdrinier wire, see for instanceFIG. 1. These baffles insure that the stream of air shall progressdownstream as respects the direction of travel of the Fourdrinier wire,although of course at an acute angle with respect thereto, and this inturn also decreases any tend-v ency to form a bow wave or interferenceof any kind with the sheet. These baffles or vanes also aid in balancingthe air jet so that uniformity of the jet from endto-end of the nozzleis maintained.

it will be seen that the nozzles do not touch the Fourdrinier wire whichis impinged upon only by the curtain or sheet of air which is quite thinand which definitely prevents the stock from passing it. Thus the airacts as a dam and forms a uniform edge for the stock as it travels inits very liquid condition from the head box opening, All of theobjections to mechanical deckles are obviated. There is no how waveformed nor is there any drag or interference with the stock or theFourdrinier wire as in the case of mechanical dams or deckle edgerulers. Furthermore, it is found that the stock is uniform and does nottaper off in sloping edges, causing waste material as in the prior artusing mechanical dams or deckles. The sheet or curtain of air underpressure may be adjusted angularly transversely of the Fourdrinier wireand vertically so that all kinds of adjustments are possible, dependingupon the quality of the stock and speeds of Fourdrinier Wire, etc. whichmay be encountered. The air cushion deckles of the present invention asdescribed may extend as far as necessary dependent on the condition ofthe stock.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do notWish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, otherwise than asset forth in the claim, but what I claim is:

In a paper making machine including a Fourdrinier wire and a head boxhaving a slice arranged so that the stock issues from the slice onto thewire, a gas pressure chamber, having a nozzle, said nozzle beingelongated in the direction of travel of the Fourdrinier Wire, a sourceof gas for the chamber and nozzle causing impingement of the gas uponthe Pourclrinier wire in a thin jet acting as a dam to maintain thestock on the Fourdrinier wire along a certain defined predeterminedpath, and the nozzle being out of contact with the wire but closelyspaced therefirom whereby the gas impinges directly upon the wire alonga predetermined line, that improvement which comprises bafiies in thenozzle directing the jet to impinge upon the Fourdrinier wire at anangle so that the line of force of the jet converges with respect to thedirection of travel of the Fourdrinier Wire.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNETED STATES PATENTS1,864,726 Griifin June 28, 1932 2,139,628 Terry Dec. 6, 1938 2,881,675Thomas Apr. 14, 1959 FORElGN PATENTS 500,127 Germany June '18, 1930775,988 Great Britain May 29, 1957 OTHER REFERENCES Perry: ChemicalEngineer s Handbook, Third ed.,

2O McGraW-Hill, New York (1950), pp. 1172-73.

